Burton Latimer Round House

I drove to Finedon in Northamptonshire today. Not long after turning off the A14 I spotted this unusual building which would look quite at home alongside a canal. A small amount of internet research reveals that the Duke of Wellington, on visiting a nearby house, "remarked that the view from the top of the house reminded him of the field of Waterloo." The round house was built to commemorate the Duke's victory at Waterloo, and included a turret with panoramic views.


Yes, had Wellington been alive a couple of centuries later, he would have looked out on a wind farm.

Wind farm photo actually taken in April, the previous time I drove past the Round House. But then I saw only the wind turbines.

The importance of beer (in Loughborough)

On Friday 3rd April 2009 we woke up in Loughborough Wharf. This had much to do with the fact that we'd moored there the previous night. After getting some supplies from Sainsbury's we had a look round the town. I was pleased to discover a large Wilkinson's and bought a few bits and pieces.

I couldn't help noticing the Catholic Club (beers by Bass)


almost next door to The Three Nuns (Everard's)

Top Thirty, 2009 week 24

Here is this week's top thirty UK waterways website as ranked by Tony Blews. This snapshot was taken at 1515 today.

1 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 JustCanals.com - Forums (=)

4 Granny Buttons (=)

5 UKCanals Network (+1)

6 nb Ten Bob Note (-1)

7 Retirement with No Problem (=)

8 Jannock Website (=)

9 Canal Photos (=)

10 Narrowboat Gypsy Rover (=)

11 nb Epiphany (=)

12 Waterway Routes (+1)

13 Derwent6 (-1)

14 Narrowboat Bones (+1)

15 nb Lucky Duck (-1)

16 CanalPlanAC (+1)

17 nb Warrior (+2)

18 Seyella's Journey (=)

19 nb Kestrel (+6)

20 Narrowboat Debdale (+1)

21 Takey Tezey Tales (+7)

22 Working Boat Hadar (-6)

23 Khayamanzi (-1)

24 UK Waterways Ranking Site (=)

25 Narrowboat Caxton (-2)

26 Google Earth Canal Maps (+4)

27 NB Windsong (-)

28 Water Explorer (-8)

29 nb Piston Broke (-3)

30 NB Northern Pride (-)

The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous week; (-) denotes new entry or re-entry.

There are 70 websites ranked; Halfie is at number 36.

Loughborough Wharf by day and night

On 2nd April 2009 we tied up in Loughborough Wharf (original post here). As there was plenty of artificial light I took the opportunity of taking a photo after dark. This is half-past ten.


I should really have tried harder to reproduce the exact framing of the daytime photo - at the time I thought I'd got it close enough.

Unlike Andrew Denny I cannot rely on moonlight alone for illumination, as the longest exposure time on my camera is just 8 seconds. I've artificially boosted the "exposure" in iPhoto.

Hold on - this might be slippery

I could hardly believe my eyes when we came upon this at a weir at Barrow-upon-Soar on 2nd April. A party of schoolchildren, holding on to each other, was walking along the top of the weir. A raft of canoes/kayaks was tied up at the bottom: presumably the group was going to make its way down the steps to them. We didn't hang around to se what happened, but while we watered up at Barrow Mill Basin I returned to take another picture.


All evidence of what had seemed a foolhardy venture had gone. I say "foolhardy", but, for all I know, this may be how one learns canoeing! At least they were wearing lifejackets.

The donkey which romped away

One pub I was looking forward to on our recent cruise was The Romping Donkey at Hassall Green on the Trent and Mersey. We tied up by Bridge 146 and walked up to find it depressingly boarded up.


This was a bit of a blow as we were relying on a pub meal that night. In the event we had time to cruise further, ending up at The Nag's Head in Wheelock, a different animal altogether. Here is the relevant post from the time.

Waterscape still stubbornly lists The Romping Donkey. Let's hope it can be revived.

Birmingham new main line?

A few days ago we went up to the North Norfolk Railway, which runs various steam and diesel trains between Sheringham and Holt. It's a very scenic line, with picture postcard views of the sea. Half-way along is Weybourne Station, which is where we usually park. I'm getting closer to the point of this post, bear with me! At Weybourne Station there's often a bookshop with lots of second hand magazines, mostly railway ones (which don't interest me). But there always seems to be one small box with a few canal mags. Before I got my subscription to Canal Boat I used to feed my appetite for canal literature from that small box, and cheaply too, at 25p a throw. This time I picked up a couple of Waterways Worlds (hmm, I've read them already - should have got more!)

An old wagon houses a model railway, but what caught my eye was the canal in the layout. Perhaps it's the BCN new main line as it has a towpath on both sides.




Oh, all right then, here are some full size railway pics. This train has come from Sheringham and is passing the Weybourne sidings approaching Weybourne Staion.


These were the days of seriously heavy engineering.


For the last runs of the day they use a DMU or a railbus. If you're quick enough you can get a seat with a view through the cab.

How I improved my mobile broadband signal

Just before embarking on our last cruise I bought a "3" mobile broadband dongle. The USB extension lead supplied was only a couple of feet long, making it difficult to position the dongle in a window. That's all right, I thought, I bought a USB extension lead from Poundland just in case. That'll give me another couple of feet. Well, it gave me the length I needed, but at the expense of all signal! The lead was useless! Then, in Leicester, or possibly Loughborough, I bought a (good quality) 2m extension lead. This made dangling the dongle easy, and gave me enough slack to be able to sit inside with the dongle on a tripod on the roof. If rain looked possible I slipped a plastic bag over it. For extra peace of mind I secured the tripod to the gang plank. And it worked.

Nev of Waterlily has posted about a "3" dongle deal for a fiver. A fiver! And I thought the thirty quid for mine was a good buy! Nev also mentions that he's bought a 5m extension lead. From what I read I think that's the maximum length without a booster of some sort, so I hope it works OK. At 5m he could hoist it to a useful signal-catching height!

Here's my original post about the dongle, with a photo of all the packaging and leaflets.